TBA Law Blog

TBA Law Blog

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Loving v. Virginia Turns 50

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 12, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia, which declared anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, turns 50 today, and NPR has collected several audio clips from the dramatic trial. Many of the clips document arguments made by Bernard Cohen and Philip Hirschkop, two young lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union who represented Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a black and Native American woman whose marriage was considered illegal in Virginia.

SCOTUS Affirms Lower Court’s North Carolina Gerrymandering Ruling

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 5, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a district court’s ruling today that 28 state legislative districts in North Carolina are unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, CNN reports. The Court did vacate the lower body’s order for special elections in response. North Carolina must now redraw their state districts. The ruling comes after two U.S. Congressional districts in the state were struck down last month by the Supreme Court as well.

Wall Street Firms Score Victory in SCOTUS SEC ruling

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 5, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court today scaled back the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to recover ill-gotten profits from defendants’ misconduct, finding that the SEC’s recovery method known as “disgorgement” is subject to a five-year statute of limitations, Reuters reports. The unanimous ruling sided in favor of investment advisor Charles Kokesh, and signaled a win for Wall Street firms that fought to limit the SEC’s powers. In the opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that disgorgement counts as a penalty and is subject to the same statute of limitations that already exists for all other penalties. 

Justice Department Asks SCOTUS to Reinstate Travel Ban

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 2, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The Justice Department asked the U.S. Supreme Court today to reinstate President Donald Trump’s temporary ban on travel from six Muslim-majority countries, the ABA Journal reports. The DOJ submitted a cert petition asking the Court to reverse a decision from last week by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that said the Trump administration’s second attempt at a travel ban “drips with religious intolerance, animus, and discrimination.” The government argues that the ban should not be invalidated based on “speculation about officials’ subjective motivations drawn from campaign-trail statements by a political candidate.”

SCOTUS Ruling on Printer Cartridges Has Major Retail Ramifications

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on Jun 1, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling on printer toner cartridges this week protects a consumer’s “right to tinker,” The Washington Post reports. The Court found that in Impression Products v. Lexmark, Lexmark’s patent rights on their toner cartridges were not violated by Impression Products refilling Lexmark cartridges at a cheaper price. The decision has implications for companies that try to use patent law to restrict what consumers can do with their products after purchase. 

SCOTUS Overturns Police Liability ‘Provocation Rule’

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on May 30, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a rule developed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that gave victims of police shootings an additional route to sue for alleged excessive force, the ABA Journal reports. The “provocation rule” had held that police who used force not deemed excessive may be liable nonetheless because they provoked victims to respond in a way that makes officers fear for their safety. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the opinion that the rule is incompatible with the court’s excessive force jurisprudence. 

SCOTUS Holds Caps on Political Contributions

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on May 23, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday affirmed a lower court’s decision upholding limits on direct contributions to political parties, the ABA Journal reports. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch voted in dissent, indicating that on campaign finance cases, Gorsuch might lean as conservative as Thomas, who believes that all campaign finance limits should be subject to strict scrutiny.  

SCOTUS Limits Venue Shopping in Patent Cases

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on May 22, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court today narrowed the locations where patent infringement lawsuits can be filed, the ABA Journal reports. The court found that a law authorizing patent suits to be filed in the district where the defendant “resides” was not supplanted by a general law that gives the word “resides” a broad meaning. The narrow definition requires patent suits filed under that prong of the venue statute to be filed in the state where the company is incorporated. The opinion in the unanimous decision was written by Justice Clarence Thomas.

Supreme Court Strikes Down N.C. Voting Maps

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on May 22, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down two North Carolina congressional district maps in a ruling today, holding that the state had engaged in racist gerrymandering, CNN reports. Read the full opinion by Justice Elena Kagan on the Supreme Court's website. The N.C. legislature will now have to redraw the districts. The decision comes after a SCOTUS ruling last week held a lower court’s decision that the state passed a voter ID law that would “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

SCOTUS Will Not Reinstate N.C. Voter ID Law

Posted by: Katharine Heriges on May 15, 2017
News Type: U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has again declined to reinstate North Carolina’s voter ID law, NPR reports. The law, considered one of the strictest in the nation, was found by a lower court to have been intentionally designed to stop African-Americans from voting. The appeals court said the law would “target African-Americans with almost surgical precision.” This is the second time that North Carolina Republicans have attempted to have the Supreme Court revisit the case.
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